Example files

I will be posting an updated set of example files here, demonstrating all the different functions of Kangaroo.

orbit_trails.ghx

Showing how the trail component can be used to trace the motion of moving particles

wind_example.3dm

wind_example.ghx

The wind component acts on sets of 3 points (typically each the vertices of each face of a triangulated mesh). It applies a force to each vertex, proportional to its area multiplied by the projection of the wind velocity vector onto the triangle normal.

curvepull_example.ghx

CurvePull - Pulls particles onto a curve. This can be either a hard or soft constraint. Useful for fixing the boundary curves of tensile surfaces, yet allowing the nodes to slide along that boundary.

Vortex_example1.ghx

vortex_example2.ghx

The Vortex component rotates one particle about an axis defined by 2 points.

align_demo1.ghx

align_demo_sphere.ghx

Align Pulls two line segments towards being parallel.

planarize_demo1.ghx

Planarize takes 4 points and pulls them towards being coplanar

Planarity measures how planar a quad defined by 4 points is (it returns the shortest distance between the two diagonals).

equalize_demo1.ghx

Equalize adjusts a set of lines towards having equal length (it finds their average length, then treats each line as a spring with this as the rest the length). This demo shows how it can be used to make a quadrilateral circular (the 4 vertices lie on a common circle). Meshes made up of circular quads have a constant distance vertex-vertex offset mesh. (see http://www.dmg.tuwien.ac.at/pottmann/2008/pw_focal_07/pw_focal_07.html)

laplacian_demo1.ghx

Laplacian acts on a central vertex, and its ring of neighbouring vertices. It finds the average position of the neighbours, and moves the central vertex towards this point. It also divides the same force up between the number of neighbours, reverses it and applies it to each of them. When applied to each vertex/set of surrounding neighbours of a mesh, this smooths it.

shear_demo1.ghx

Shear pulls a particle towards the plane normal to a given line (or to a given height above that plane). It could be useful for example if you wanted to restrict some of the vertices of a mesh to match a plane for glazing lines, or in self-organizing particle systems if you want them to form surfaces not just clusters.

Combined_mesh_optimization_demo.3dm

Combined_mesh_optimization_demo.ghx

(also requires WeaverBird)

This demo shows how several forces can be combined to optimize different properties of a mesh. Sliders control the relative strengths of the Laplacian smoothing and Planarization forces.

A shear component keeps the base vertices on the ground plane but allows them to move around on it (Using the shear component here is quicker than constraining to a mesh).

The colours display how planar each quad of the mesh is.

It can sometimes be effective to use high smoothing/low planarization values to begin with and get a nice smooth form, then lower the smoothing and raise the planarization for the fine adjustments to get it within manufacturing tolerances.

equilateralize_demo1.3dm

equilateralize_demo1.ghx

Equilateralization - This shows how equalization of mesh triangle edge lengths can be combined with smoothing to create a pseudo-physical material that reacts to manipulation of the anchor points

shell_and_plate_example.3dm

shell_and_plate_example.gh

This shows how the Hinge force can be used to keep the angle between faces of a mesh at a particular angle.

You can also download an earlier collection of example files here:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/26034251/SimpleKangarooExamples.zip

(some of these may need slight changes and updating - I'll be trying to go through these over the next few days and make sure they are all compatible with the latest version. Also - many of them also require the WeaverBird plugin)

There is also a collection of links to further example files and helpful discussions here:

http://smartgeometry.org/index.php?option=com_community&view=groups&task=viewdiscussion&groupid=2&topicid=11&Itemid=0

more example files to follow soon...